Pokémon Neo
by TrueZero23
Summary: What if certain events played out differently? What if Team Rocket were more aggressive in their goals? What if all this was seen from the eyes of an ordinary trainer? This is Gold's story, and a new tale within the world of Pokémon, hang on tight.
1. Professor Elm's Errand 1

_**Pokémon Neo  
**__**By TrueZero2**_

_**Authors Note:  
**_This fanfic is inspired by the Pokémon Adventures Manga series, and is uses a few aspects from my real-life HeartGold game. The main aspect of my HeartGold game brought into the story will really just be my in-game team, and there will be large differences between the game's storyline and this series' storyline however which will be easily noticeable. And since this is a fanfic, I assure you that the plot will loosely follow the games more than from other sources.

As of 23rd July 2010 this chapter has recieved minor updates to better fit with the next chapter and upcoming plot points.

_**Chapter 1: Professor Elm's Errand: Part One  
**__**A Partnership Forged!**_

Johto. In the world of Pokémon, it lies to the west, and is home to 100 species that were previously unknown to many people around the world. With legends and mysteries in many areas of this land, and many questions left unanswered, adventures are abundant here. Our story however begins in the south-eastern area of the region, in a place called New Bark Town. For in this town, a new journey will soon begin...

"So, three years since the Silph Company Attack huh? Geez, why won't some people just leave things in peace? Team Rocket was disbanded after that attack and there hasn't been anything in the news about them since then, so it's over. Leave it be." A young boy said to himself as he sat in his bedroom looking for something to catch his attention for a while. To say the least, he was, in a word, bored. "Man there is _nothing_ on the TV, and the only game I haven't beaten yet I've gone and lent to Lyra. Just my luck." He continued to say to himself as he heard a sound come from his computer. Getting up, he went to check what had happened.

"Hmm, speak of the devil." He said, seeing that Lyra had sent him a message. Opening it, he began to read it to himself.

"_HEY GOLD!_

_I'M GOING TO BE GOING TO VISIT MY GRANDPARENTS NEAR GOLDENROD FOR A FEW WEEKS STARTING TODAY, SO I WON'T BE AROUND FOR A WHILE. I'M SO EXCITED! MOM SAID THAT I COULD MAKE THE JOURNEY ON MY OWN IF I WANTED, SO I GET AN ADVENTURE OUT OF IT TOO!_

_DID I TELL YOU ABOUT MY GRANDPARENTS? THEY RUN A POKÉMON DAY CARE SERVICE. I LOVE POKÉMON, SO I'LL BE ABLE TO HAVE A LOT OF FUN STAYING WITH MY GRAN AND GRANDPA._

_BY THE WAY, I TOLD MOM TO KEEP THAT GAME YOU LENT TO ME ON HAND IF YOU WANT TO COME PICK IT UP._

_SEE YOU WHEN I GET BACK,_

_LYRA."_

"Dammit. I'm bored out of my mind and something good happens to her." The boy, Gold, said with an annoyed smirk. "Might as well go for a walk, gives me something to do at least." He added, turning to head downstairs, grabbing some pocket change and his house keys along the way.

Walking downstairs, he looked at his mother, who was watching the Silph Company report on the news while drinking some tea.

"I'm headed out for a bit Mom." He said as he reached for the door.  
"Before you go," His mother said as she looked away from the TV. "Your Pokégear's on the counter, and Professor Elm wanted to see you. He said something about an errand."  
"Really? I'll go talk to him then. I'll see you later Mom." Gold replied as he picked up his Pokégear and put it on. He pressed a few buttons to make sure it was working properly and then walked out of the house, headed to Professor Elm's Research Lab to find out why Elm wanted him for a job. Could have been that since Lyra was the one that he normally asked and since she was going to be out of town for a while, maybe Elm had decided that Gold would be able to handle it.

Even though New Bark Town wasn't all that big like some other cities were, it was fairly spread out, so it still took Gold about half an hour to get from his house to Professor Elm's lab. When he got there he knocked on the door and went inside.

"Professor Elm?" He called as he entered. "Professor? You wanted to see me?" He called again. No response. The lab was dark, the power had gone out and there was no one around.  
"Hurry up and restart the power! My wife's got company over, and our experiment went and tripped the breakers! If we leave it too long the results will be worthless and I'll be a dead man!" He heard the professor shout as a man of around 20 emerged from the room ahead of him and ran right past him. Looking back at the man, Gold saw that the man had stopped for a moment and was looking at him while jogging on the spot.

"You're Gold right?" The man asked.  
"Yeah, that's me. The Professor wanted me to do an errand for him." Gold replied.  
"Right, well he's in that room. He's expecting you." The man said as he pointed to the room he had just left before running off to get back to the task that he had been given. Gold walked up to the door and began to open it.  
"Professor? You wanted me to do an errand for you?" He asked as he entered the room. Professor Elm looked up and smiled.

"Ah Gold, it's good to see you." Elm said warmly. "Yes, I'd like you to do a little job for me. I have a friend out past Cherrygrove City called Mr. Pokémon. He's known in my field for finding rare items, you see, specifically collecting rare items that related to Pokémon, and sometimes he finds items that he lets me take a look at to see if there's any research I can use them for. He has an item for me but with this power outage we've gone and imposed on the building, and Lyra going to visit family, I can't send anyone I'd usually send to go get it. Everything understood so far?" He asked.

"Yeah, everything's alright so far, go on." Gold replied, nodding.  
"Well I'd like you to go fetch the item for me. I don't know what the item is, but Mr. Pokémon says that he'll keep it set aside for when you arrive. And since you don't have a Pokémon of your own, I'll even let you have one of the ones I have here for the job. Sound fair?"  
"Sure, sounds fair. I'll do it. I need something to do anyway." Gold replied, grinning he realised something. "By the way, what caused the power cut?"  
"Oh that, we decided to test for the types of energy given out during Evolution. There's much we don't know about it, so we decided to see what kinds of energy were released, turns out that there's more than enough to trip a circuit breaker when you connect a Pokémon into the power." Elm replied, himself grinning too, although his grin was slightly uneasy.  
"So you connected a Pokémon into the electrical grid?" Gold shouted, concerned.  
"We made sure that we used a ground-type Pokémon, Gold. It wasn't hurt by the connection whatsoever."  
"But the principals are there! If that wasn't a ground type you'd have fried them!" Gold tried to reason, but to no avail.  
"But it's fine though Gold, so no harm done. Now do you want the job or not?" Elm said, suddenly turning serious.  
"I already said that I would. So, you said about giving me a Pokémon to help me out with this. What do I get?" Gold replied, giving up. Nothing was going to get through to this guy.  
"Ah, about that, follow me." Elm said with a smile before turning and walking over to an odd machine.

Walking over to it, Gold saw fifteen slots in the machine. Above each of them was a symbol, probably marking the type of Pokémon that would go there. He saw the standard flame, water droplet, and leaf symbols denoting Fire, Water, and Grass types, in fact, they were the only ones with a Pokéball resting in them. He also saw a Bent Spoon, a pair of wings, a lightning bolt and a Honeycomb which he could only guess meant Psychic, Flying, Electric and Bug Type Pokémon.  
"What's with this thing?" Gold asked, placing his hand onto the machine, he felt some movement inside it, but it was more a slight vibration coming from it. He also noticed that three of the slots were filled, the slots for Fire, Grass and Water each held one Pokéball.  
"This is a Type-Based Pokémon Scanner. You see, even when inside their Pokéball, a Pokémon has a distinct energy signature that can be picked up by this machine, which in turn allows us to determine the overall physical and mental state of a Pokémon, which we can then use to better understand them. The three Pokéballs here are the Grass Type, Chikorita, the Water Type, Totodile, and the Fire Type, Cyndaquil. The reason I haven't given you a Pokémon yet is that I want you to choose one. What are you going to pick?" Elm explained, placing his hand to his mouth, wondering which one gold would choose.

"_I don't know, which one should I choose?_" Gold thought to himself, his eyes closed. "_Knowing this guy he'll probably try something with whatever I don't pick, and if it's anything like this nut job was doing a minute ago, that Totodile wouldn't last long, Chikorita will probably do a little better, but the electricity would easily cause a fire, and Cyndaquil I have no idea about.._" He clenched his fist, and he opened his eyes.

"I know which one I'll team up with." Gold said, pointing at the machine. "I'm going with Totodile."  
"Hmm. A good choice. Totodile learns a wide variety of moves, and has some very handy physical strength too. Right now it can use Scratch and Leer." Elm replied; taking the Pokéball that was resting beneath the Water Symbol. He passed the ball to Gold, and smiled warmly. "Good luck on your errand. You'll need to head west on Route 29 to Cherrygrove City, and from there head north along Route 30. About halfway to Violet City you'll find a large house, that's where you'll find Mr Pokémon's Mansion. Tell him I sent you and he'll take care of the rest."  
"You already said it's out past Cherrygrove." Gold said, "I'm going to go grab a few things from home and then I'll be on my way. I thought it was going to be a local job. See you in a few days then!" He added, running out of the room and heading home.

It was about 2 hours before Gold was completely ready to go, by the time he was finished he was fully packed, with a change of clothes, some more money which, when he added what he had before, came to about 3000 Pokédollars, and a puzzle cube he had been working on for a while, as well as some gear for travelling at night. He made sure he had Totodile's Pokéball and left the house.

On the way out of New Bark Town, he could have sworn that he saw a weird kid stood next to Professor Elm's Lab. He shrugged it off though, could've been a visitor.

It would take a few hours to reach Cherrygrove City, so Gold decided that he should get used to battling a bit just in case he came across something that would cause him a decent amount of trouble. About five minutes later he came across a perfect starting opponent. A Pidgey. He threw a rock at it to catch its attention, and then threw Totodile's Pokéball in-between them. The little blue reptile emerged from the ball and stood ready.

"Let's see, what attacks would a Totodile know?" Gold said to himself as he then remembered a few attacks. "Totodile! Use Water Gun!" Nothing happened. "Use Water Gun Totodile!" Nothing again. Totodile then gave him a confused look.  
"You don't know Water Gun?" Gold asked, to which Totodile nodded. But before they could call another move, Pidgey rammed into Totodile, forcing him back before taking flight and circling around for another attack.  
"Well what moves do you know?" Gold asked, before Totodile leapt up and clawed at Pidgey, dealing a decent amount of damage.  
"That was a Scratch attack wasn't it?" Gold asked himself before smiling. "Ok then, we'll have to win this with Scratch! Go for it again!"

When Totodile jumped up to try and scratch Pidgey this time, it was to no avail, as Pidgey swiftly dodged before slamming into Totodile with another Tackle, sending him dropping to the ground.

"Think, think, what other moves should it know? Got it!" Gold said, remembering the second move Elm had told him that Totodile could use. "Totodile. Use Leer and then Scratch!" He called. Totodile got up and leered at Pidgey, who at that point was coming in for another attack, but hesitated for a brief moment, which Totodile used and clawed at Pidgey again, this time knocking it into a tree. When it hit the ground it was clearly knocked out.  
"We did it!" Gold shouted, happy at the win. "Nice Job Totodile." Totodile looked at Gold and nodded, before letting a torrent of water out of his mouth which Gold barely dodged.  
"Wow, that must have been a strong one, since you just learned Water Gun there buddy." He said, kneeling down beside Totodile. "You know, I can't keep calling you by the same name as the type of Pokémon you are, we need to give you a nickname. It's more personal that way. What do you think?"

Totodile nodded in agreement. The two of them then agreed to let Gold give it some thought while they ran the errand, and when they were on their way back he would make his suggestions and Totodile would then pick his favourite.

The sun was setting as the two reached Cherrygrove City. Gold had decided not to put Totodile back in his Pokéball and to let him roam around alongside him. While it wasn't late, they were going to have to spend an hour or so at the Pokémon Center to let Totodile recover from the battle earlier, while the damage wasn't too bad, it was also to let the pair have a break from travelling and to get something for them to eat. Once they had done what they'd arrived in the city to take care of, they left Cherrygrove using Route 30, heading north to find Mr. Pokémon's Mansion.

_**End of Chapter 1  
**__**Next Chapter: Professor Elm's Errand: Part Two  
**__**The Eventful Return Trip!**_

_**Author's Note:**_

Anyway, that's the first chapter to my first fic, as I said team arrangements will be from my team on HeartGold, and a real life friend of mine has agreed to let me include a character that will eventually use his team from his version of the game as well. But before I continue, I'm going to say that this is a very loose adaptation from the games, and while certain aspects are still present within the games, such as overall progression of the story with regards to locations, I plan to make some big changes within the story, plus I'll be moving into all four regions from the first four generations, since not much is known about Isshu yet.

Anyway, comment and let me know what you think.


	2. Professor Elm's Errand 2

_**Pokémon Neo  
**__**By TrueZero23**_

**_Author's Note:_**  
Pokémon and its surrounding properties are copyright of Nintendo and Satoshi Tajiri, this is a fan-work based off of their property and should not be distributed for profit. If you paid for this you got screwed. Enjoy.

_**Chapter 2: Professor Elm's Errand Part Two:  
**__**The Eventful Return Trip!**_

Route 30. For Trainers that begin their journey from New Bark Town, it is most likely the first route where a Trainer will find opponents other than wild Pokémon, other new Pokémon Trainers eager to battle against one another for experience and practice. This is also the route where one Mr. Pokémon dwells. An avid collector of all rare Pokémon artefacts, he recently contacted Professor Elm about an odd item that is believed to hold a new line of information in Pokémon evolution. And this is where we rejoin Gold...

"Gaaahhh! This is so annoying!" Gold groaned about three hours after leaving Cherrygrove City, "Elm should have told us this route was a nightmare to travel along at night! And we can't head back to Cherrygrove because we can't work out which direction we were going in the first place!" He added in frustration. Totodile glared at him, Gold had gotten the two of them lost about an hour ago after a supposed shortcut landed them in a densely packed cluster of trees. They had even been given an Apricorn Box from a random nut job who was handing them out to anyone who came across him.

The two of them had even run into a Spinarak and a Hoothoot a while back, both of which Totodile dealt with swiftly and had gotten some good practice with Water Gun. The feeling of victory was short lived though, they were tired, hungry and thirsty, and they wanted to find this Mr. Pokémon before they stopped for the night. It was then that light began to peek through the trees, and upon seeing it, the two of them began to run towards it. Their prayers had been answered.

They had found a house, and the lights were on, so someone was home.

They ran up to the door and Gold slammed his fists on the door a few times hoping that they were at the right place.. Within a minute the door opened to reveal a middle aged man who was dressed in a strange half formal half casual manner, while he was wearing the elements of a suit, he wasn't wearing a tie or a jacket. He was also quite scruffy, his shirt was only half untucked] and his brown hair was a mess he was also getting a bit of a beard, presumably he hadn't shaved for a while.

"Were you the one that tried to break my door young man?" The man asked Gold.  
"Before I answer, are you Mr. Pokémon?" Gold said, looking at the man, who nodded in confusion. He only grew even more confused as Gold and Totodile practically broke down from joy on his doorstep.  
"We made it! After that hell of a forest we made it!" Gold shouted, tears streaming down both his and Totodile's eyes.

It took about ten minutes before the two calmed down enough for Mr. Pokémon to invite them inside. When they sat down in his lounge Gold explained that he didn't realise how dense the trees would be or how easy it was to get lost.

"I see you two have had quite an ordeal there." Mr. Pokémon said, grinning. "Tell you what; to make it easier, why don't you stay the night and you can head back to Professor Elm in the morning?"  
"That'd be great, thank you." Gold replied; both him and Totodile bowing their heads, followed by the two of them yawning. "I think we'd like to sleep now if you don't mind, is there a spare bedroom we can use?"  
"Of course." Their host replied with a smile. "Right this way."

Gold and Totodile were led to a simplistic bedroom, not too big, but good enough so that the two could have a good night's sleep. After thanking Mr. Pokémon and lying down, they were asleep within a couple of minutes. If they had stayed awake longer though, they would have seen an odd figure with a flashlight walking around outside...

The following morning the two of them returned to Mr. Pokémon's living room. Having had a good night's sleep, the pair was ready to go.

"Good morning!" Gold called as he entered the room.  
"Good morning young man. I didn't realise that the owner of the house had guests." An unknown voice replied. Gold looked in the direction it came from and saw an elderly man in a white coat who was sat on the sofa drinking coffee.  
"Hello there." The old man said with a grin. "I'm afraid that our host had to step out for a moment, he's currently on the phone."  
"I see. Don't mean to sound rude but who are you mister?" Gold asked, confused.  
"It's impolite to ask someone's name when you haven't given your own you know." The old man said with a slight chuckle. The statement was something that Gold could let slide. The little chuckle though annoyed him a little.  
"Ok then, I'm Gold of New Bark Town, now who are you?" Gold asked again.  
"There we go." The man said, putting his cup on the table in front of him. "My name is Samuel Oak. I'm a Pokémon Professor like the one in New Bark, only I'm based in Pallet Town in Kanto."  
"So you're like Elm then?" Gold asked.  
"Oh no no no, I'm not like him. Between you and me, he's regarded as a bit of a radical among the people in my field. He's always performing unusual experiments." Oak replied, his response put Gold at ease. "Anyway, I see you have a Totodile. A good choice for a beginner."  
"Wait, how did you know I was a beginner?" Gold asked, shocked. How could he have known?  
"To put it simply, Totodile looks rather young. Pokémon like Totodile, a Pokémon that is given to a beginning trainer, are always given to a trainer while they're young. It makes them easier to raise and form a bond with. Personally mine was a Pidgey, she was a gift from my father. By the way, are you going to be taking on the Gym Challenge?"

Gold thought about it for a moment, the Gym Challenge would allow him to travel the country and test his skills. It'd also mean that he'd have something to do.

"Yeah, I figure once I've got this errand for Elm out of the way I'll take on some gyms. It's been boring at home lately, I'd kill for a little excitement and this should do the trick." Gold answered.  
"Well tell you what, take this for your journey, it'll come in handy." Oak said, reaching into his pocket. Gold, seeing this, and unsure about what he'd get, was cautious as he approached the Pokémon Professor. Oak stood up and handed him a small red instrument that was about the size of a PDA. Pressing a button on the side, it opened up to reveal a small screen and a series of buttons.

"_Pokédex operational. Ready for use. Trainer Information must be set up at a Pokémon Center." _

"Pokédex?" Gold asked, turning the contraption over to get a look at the back.  
"The Pokédex is an item designed to catalogue the Pokémon that its trainer captures. You see, a trainer is connected to a national database for use in official functions. Every time you capture a Pokémon, have your Pokédex scan the ball, and the record of capture is placed on the database and your Pokédex updates with the new information. This is only needed if you have less than six Pokémon in your active roster at any given time however. After that it becomes a fully automated service. The reason you need to manually start it when you have less than 6 active is because you'll be carrying the Pokémon around with you. Any others enter storage until they're called for."  
"I see. This thing's gonna come in handy then. Thanks Professor." Gold said with a grin. "It'll be much easier with your help than it will with Elm; you know the guy hooked a Pokémon up to his lab's electrical grid? Blew the circuit breakers across the whole building."  
"That is bad, I'll have to have someone look into it." Oak said, as Mr. Pokémon walked into the room holding a large egg, he looked as if he had slept in what he was wearing last night, other than the extra creases and overall scruffier appearance, the clothes were the same as those he wore last night.  
"Ah, I see you two have met. Professor Oak is a friend of mine Gold. We meet up every so often to catch up with one another. Now, I presume you'll want to be going to finish off this errand for Elm right?" He said with a smile as he handed the egg to Gold.  
"Yeah, I've got to get going. This is the item I was meant to pick up right?" Gold asked, changing his grip on the egg.  
"It is, if anyone is able to find out how that egg is linked to Pokémon, it's got to be Elm, as much as I regret saying that." Mr. Pokémon answered. Gold nodded in acknowledgement and "Hey Totodile, could you move a few things in my bag so we can fit the egg in there?"

Totodile nodded as Gold knelt down. He moved a lot of things in there to the side and created a small space for the egg to rest in. Gold closed his bag and stood up.

"Why don't you have some breakfast before you go?" Mr. Pokémon asked warmly.  
"Alright, we'll have something to eat before we go, that is, if you don't mind having us. We'll take you up on your offer." Gold replied with a smile. He looked around the room, seeing Oak at the window, looking a little concerned.  
"What's the matter Professor?" Gold asked.  
"I thought I heard a noise, although I guess it's just my mind playing tricks on me. Anyway, it's been good to catch up with you, Pokémon, I hope to hear about some more of your discoveries, but I've got to get going to Goldenrod to record my Radio show." Oak said, saying his goodbyes to Mr. Pokemon and giving his Pokégear Number to Gold so that Gold could get feedback on his progress. Gold thought to himself, that it would be much easier with a more reliable and helpful Professor like Oak helping him, instead of Elm. After Oak had left, he went into the house's Dining Room to have a meal before he left for

After breakfast...

"Ok then, we'll be off. Thank you for the room to use for the night, we'll be sure to travel by the path from now on." Gold replied as Totodile glared at him. Gold looked uneasily back at Totodile. The two may have become fast friends but Totodile never masked how he felt. It was easy to tell what Totodile thought of that 'shortcut' of Gold's the previous night; he could tell that Totodile thought of it as a colossal screw-up. The two left Mr. Pokémon and Professor Oak and began their journey back to New Bark Town with the egg.

They arrived in Cherrygrove a couple of hours later (Having taken the correct path too.) and headed to the Pokémon Center.

"Welcome Back, how can I help you today?" The nurse asked with a warm smile.  
"I'd like to have my Totodile healed and my Pokédex ID set up. I'm able to do that here right?" Gold asked, holding his Pokédex up for the nurse to see.  
"Of course. It'll take about ten minutes to set up your ID, during which time your Totodile will be healed so that you can continue your journey. Is that alright?" The nurse asked.  
"Yeah that'll be good. Thanks." Gold replied, smiling.

The nurse took the Pokédex and slotted it into a small machine next to her computer. It turned out that setting up an ID was simply filling in a digital form and then being given a number, this number would be needed as proof that Gold was a real trainer, so when he was given his Pokédex back, he was also given a small card with his basic info and his picture on it. (Part of filling in the ID was a photo for the card which would also be used for the Pokédex should Gold lose it, that way it could be quickly returned to him.) During this time Totodile was given a check up and a clean bill of health.

"Come again!" The nurse said as Gold and Totodile left the building. It was time for them to continue to New Bark Town to drop off the egg.

Since the Pokémon Center was rather close to the exit to Route 29, it didn't take long for them to leave the city. It was about an hour or so into the Route that they heard someone shouting. Gold looked at Totodile, slightly confused.

"Can you hear shouting?" He asked, Totodile responded with a nod. "Well then, why don't we check it out?" He asked as the two ran over to the source of the shouting, finding a boy battling a Sentret with a Cyndaquil. The two of them squatted down in a bush and watched the battle, deciding not to interfere.

The boy looked a little older than Gold was, while Gold was 11, this guy looked like he was about 13 years old, 14 at most. Height wise he was about a head taller than Gold, and he looked a little overweight, (Gold wouldn't call him fat per se; it was about 4 or 5 pounds over the right weight, it gave him a slight bit of extra bulk.) His hair was jet black, and rather short, at the same time it was very curly. As for his eyes, they were a light gray that faded outwards to a light blue. (Which to Gold wasn't the kind of thing he saw everyday.) He wore a green jacket with an Ultra Ball emblazoned on the back, and black jeans with black sneakers.

"Cyndaquil! Use Tackle attack and end it!" The boy shouted as Cyndaquil hurled itself at Sentret, landing the attack and knocking Sentret out.  
"Oh yeah, another win for Dax and Cyndaquil!" The boy, apparently called Dax, said with a grin while snapping his fingers.  
"Nice work." Gold said, as he and Totodile showed themselves. "So are you from New Bark Town? I'm Gold by the way."  
"I'm Dax, and nah, I'm from Cherrygrove. Arrived in New Bark Town late last night and started my journey as a trainer this morning. Elm said that Totodile had already been given to someone running an errand for him, so me and a kid called Leo had to choose from Chikorita and Cyndaquil." Dax replied.  
"That's me. Totodile was at risk of being an experiment to the Mad Professor, so I decided that I would have him as my partner so that he wouldn't fall to that fate." Gold said, raising his hand. "You know, he was trying to see if we could harness evolution energy by hooking a Pokémon up to his lab's electrical grid!"  
"You're kidding, that's pretty much what he was trying when I got Cyndaquil, and I chose her for more or less the same reason too!" Dax replied, surprised the two of them had the same reason for their respective choice.  
"Surprising huh?" Gold asked, "Anyway, moving on, care for a battle? We could rest up first so that Cyndaquil's in top form for it.  
"Sure, we'll have about half an hour to rest up, and then we'll take you two on." Dax said, grinning at Cyndaquil, who grinned back. "We won't make it easy for you!"

So, after a brief rest, the two sides prepared for their battle. They set up a boundary, and agreed to a one on one match. Gold was to use Totodile, while Dax was to use Cyndaquil. They even agreed to have a time limit of five minutes on the match.

"Are you ready Dax?" Gold asked. "Cause we are, right Totodile?"  
Totodile nodded and stretched, ready to go.

"We're ready, good luck and all that." Dax replied, as he took his place at the edge of the boundary.  
"Well then, let's begin!" Gold shouted, "Totodile, let's give 'em hell!" As he shouted to Totodile, the blue reptile leapt forward so that he was in front of Gold.  
"Ok then, Cyndaquil! You're up!" Dax called as Cyndaquil moved into position and lit the flames on her back. "We'll go first if you don't mind, Cyndaquil, Growl!" Cyndaquil made the fire on her back a bit bigger as she glared at Totodile, standing her ground and growling loudly. Totodile stepped back, slightly intimidated by the firey-backed rodent.  
"Don't back down Totodile, use Scratch!" Gold shouted as Totodile shook his head and charged at Cyndaquil, landing the attack on Cyndaquil and forcing it back.  
"Get in close and use Smokescreen." Dax said as both he and Cyndaquil began to grin.  
"_Cyn... Quil._" Cyndaquil muttered as she began to run towards Totodile.  
"We need to keep her at a distance, use Water Gun!" Gold called, attempting a counterattack. It was to no avail though as this Cyndaquil was fairly light on her feet, and managed to avoid Totodile's water blasts before grabbing hold of him and using Smokescreen straight into Totodile's eyes, sending him reeling back and rubbing his eyes, trying to clear them.  
"Clever, now Totodile is the only one that can't see. But we won't let that get in our way, Totodile, use Water Gun!" Gold said, punching the air in front of him. Totodile fired a few blasts off, but Cyndaquil was still able to dodge them, before following up with a tackle that knocked Totodile to the floor.

"_This is bad."_ Gold thought, reaching into his bag and pulling out the puzzle cube. He began to play with it, and thought about the situation. "_Totodile can't see where Cyndaquil is and because of that, we're sunk if I can't think of a strategy. If only Totodile had a second set of eyes...Wait a moment, that's it! Totodile may not be able to see, but who says that Totodile not being able to see is a be all and end all?" _He thought, putting the cube back into his bag. "_Time to turn this match around!"_

"If I could just ask, what's with the cube you've got?" Dax asked, a little confused.  
"It helps me think. A lot of times it focuses my mind and helps me to come up with a new strategy. Doesn't always work, but it has a greater rate of winning strategies to losing ones." Gold explained.  
"You don't say, well no matter, Cyndaquil, one more time! Tackle!" Dax shouted, with Cyndaquil beginning to charge towards Totodile.  
"Totodile, use Water Gun when I say to, alright?" Gold asked, smirking. Totodile nodded to confirm and waited. As Cyndaquil got close, she leapt up off of the ground to land the attack. It was then that Dax realised what they were trying for.  
"Now!" Gold yelled. Totodile let loose a large Water Gun that struck Cyndaquil head on and sent it crashing into a nearby tree, the impact from the crash and the jet of water doing the trick and winning the match. Gold noticed that the last time the two had battled, against that Pidgey the previous day, they had won by slamming it into a tree too.

"Hey, is Cyndaquil alright?" Gold asked as he walked over to Dax, who had picked up Cyndaquil.  
"Yeah, she's a little dazed, but some rest will do her some good, if you get Totodile into a nice big body of water his eyes should clear up pretty quickly. Well then, we're going to head over to Cherrygrove now, but how about a battle if we see each other again?" Dax asked.  
"Sure. No problem. As for us, we've got an item to deliver to the Mad Professor." Gold replied, both him and Totodile, whose eyes were still closed because of the damage they'd taken fromm the Smokescreen, looking a little nervous. The two trainers exchanged Pokégear numbers before the two groups parted ways, Dax and Cyndaquil continuing with their journey, and Gold and Totodile making their way back to New Bark Town.

It was a few hours before they arrived back in New Bark Town, Gold had put Totodile back into his ball to rest after the match against Dax and Cyndaquil, and as such, Totodile's eyes were still sore, even though he could see again, he was having a good rest to at least recover a little. When he approached the Lab though he could hear shouting, and things hitting the floor. He decided to go check it out.

He crept inside, the power was still on, so he decided to try and find anything to heal Totodile with before finding out what was going on. He cursed under his breath as he found nothing that could help. He had no choice but to see where Elm and his assistants were. He quickly called Dax, and took control of the conversation when he picked up.

"I'm going to need you to whisper right now Dax." Gold whispered into his Pokégear. "Something's going on in Elm's lab, have a listen." He added, holding his Pokegear up as some more yelling started up, soon followed by a loud crash.  
"What the hell is going on over there?" Dax asked, keeping his voice low.  
"No idea, but I need to know, is there anything Elm has in his Lab that'll heal a Pokémon?" Gold asked.  
"If I remember right, that scanner in his main work area has an Energy Boost system. If you can get Totodile on there and start it up, you should be able to at least give him a nice boost of energy, not a complete heal, but it'll have to do." Dax explained.  
"It'll have to, yeah." Gold replied. "I'll let you know what happened when this is over, OK?"  
"No problem dude. Be careful and kick some ass if you need to." Dax said as the two of them hung up. Gold looked at his Pokéball and decided to give it a try. It was risky, but it could pay off and save some people.

Walking towards the direction of the shouting, Gold was nervous as he approached the door that led to the source of the chaos. The door was ajar, and peering inside, he could see Elm tied up and being interrogated by a man in a black coat, trousers and hat, with white gloves and boots. Elm's assistants were in the far corner, having been beaten into unconciousness.

"Tell me where the Egg is!" The man shouted.  
"It isn't h-here yet!" Elm replied, stuttering due to fear.  
"Liar!" The man shouted, punching Elm. "I know the Errand Boy was headed here and he should have been and gone by now! So where's the Egg?"  
"I-I said it isn't here yet!" Elm shouted. Only to be met with another punch. As much as Gold would have loved to see Elm in pain, given the state of the lab and the fact that the assistants were out cold meant that this had gone too far. He got ready for a battle and kicked open the door. The man turned around, and now Gold could see the guy a lot more clearly. He had blue hair, and his clothing was a uniform with a large red R on the front.

"You want the egg? Well what if I told you that it's right here?" Gold asked, taking the egg out of his bag.  
"Hand it over ya lil' brat!" The guy yelled.  
"First, Let's get names out of the way. I'm Gold." Gold replied, taking out Totodile's Pokéball.  
"Heh, you're a little wiseass aren't you? Ok then, I'll bite. The name's Proton, commit it to memory." The man, Proton, said with a grin. This one wasn't like the kind Dax had when Gold was battling him. When this man grinned, it was dripping with arrogance and malice. "Now then, hand over the egg and you won't suffer."  
"Not on your life pal, I was entrusted with this egg, and I'm keeping it safe." Gold answered, smirking. He threw Totodile's Pokéball to the ground beneath them. When Totodile emerged though, it was still struggling to see. "I know it hurts Totodile, but this is an emergency, bear with it and we'll spend a few days resting after this, OK?" Totodile nodded, understandably nervous, and eyes still stinging from the battle with Cyndaquil, while it was better than it was before, his eyes were still fairly sore.

"That Totodile's no threat." Proton sneered. "I'll say it one last time. Give me the egg. Or I _will _take it by force. That clear?"

Gold's response was plain and simple. The middle finger on his free hand straightened and was aimed clearly at Proton.  
"Screw you. Totodile! Water Gun at 12 o'clock!" He called, Totodile doing as requested, with Projon jumping out of the way.  
"So it's like that huh?" Proton growled, clearly angered by Gold's defiance. Who was this brat, this snot-nosed punk, to be so disrespectful to someone like him?

It wasn't even worth sending out a Pokémon to do the job. It would be more satisfying to take the egg personally. He began to run towards Gold, who called for Totodile to use a Scratch attack to it's right, but to no avail as Proton leapt over the clawed appendage and reached Gold, sending a knee straight into the kid's gut.

Gold doubled over as he clutched his stomach, holding the egg close to him. Proton though, simply responded by punching Gold in the face, knocking him out. Once he was out cold, taking the egg was a simple task and with that done, the man left, not caring about the Totodile that couldn't see, or any of the other Pokémon they had in the lab, he didn't want any of them and the egg was enough of a prize. When he left the lab he looked up and muttered to himself.  
"Mission Accomplished. Time to head back to base and prepare for the next job..."

It was a good hour before Gold woke up again, resting in a bed, which after a while he realised was his own. He noticed that his Mother and a bandaged Professor Elm were stood beside him.  
"Did you have a good rest son?" His mom asked, smiling, in fact, she was beaming with Pride. "I heard about the incident in the lab. I can easily say I'm proud of you for how you acted there."  
"Thanks Mom, it means a lot to me. By the way Professor, where's Totodile?" Gold replied, looking around.  
"Don't worry, one of my Aides is out back with him, getting Totodile's eyes fixed up. We've used a few ground types and water types to create a decent sized pool for Totodile to rest up in." Elm said, slightly mumbled thanks to his injuries and the subsequent bandages for them. "I'm sorry to say about this so soon, but I feel that while time isn't a factor with the egg, which I'm disappointed that we no longer have, it'd be something you'll enjoy doing."  
"What is it?" Gold asked, curious.  
"I would like you to take on the Pokémon League Challenge." Elm said, passing a small leaflet to Gold, who looked at it and began to grin.

Things were about to change, and this would be a big one.

**_To be Continued_**  
**_Next Time: Expanding the Team!_**  
**_Sora, Tsuchi, I Choose You!_**

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_  
It's finally written! Believe it or not, Chapter 2 has been the single most irritating piece to actually write for me. Considering I had writer's block to begin with, and decided at the last minute to have this encounter at Elm's Lab, meaning a rewrite was needed, I only hope that I can finish the next chapter sooner.

On a side note, yes, Gold will be nicknaming his Pokémon, and they will follow a naming pattern, which I will get into next time as Totodile will also be getting one.

I'm also not going to be putting a goal for when the story will update, all I'm going to say is that it will be much sooner than what it took for this one to be written and released. I'm also going to put a date at the end of each chapter, this is the date that the chapter was submitted, that way I can keep track of how long each chapter's taken. So then, for this chapter, see you next time!

_Date of Chapter Addition_: 30th July 2010


End file.
